insurance exchanges

Mother knows best. And backers of the new health care law want young adults to start listening when their moms say they need to have health insurance. Obama: Health Law ‘Working the Way It’s Supposed to’ The idea of having a major illness or accident without health insurance is a nightmare for parents but a fantasy for many young adults. That’s why health care experts have dubbed newly minted grownups, many of whom think they can do without insurance, as “young …

By Phil Galewitz and Alvin Tran, Staff Writers, Kaiser Health News It’s official. The Obama administration will be running new health insurance marketplaces in half the states – including the major population centers of Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. The federal government had hoped more states this week would agree to form a partnership exchange – the deadline to apply was Friday – but the offer was largely rebuffed. New Jersey, Ohio and Florida, several of the biggest states that had not …

By Phil Galewitz, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News This story was produced in collaboration with USA Today. JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Phil Bryant and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney have known each other for 30 years and call themselves friends. Now, though, a wedge has come between the two elected Republicans: President Barack Obama’s health law. Bryant is trying to stop Chaney from creating a critical feature of the Affordable Care Act – an online health insurance marketplace that will allow an …

By Phil Galewitz, Senior Correspondent, Kaiser Health News If state officials think they can escape a fiscal quagmire by refusing to expand Medicaid under the federal health law, they might want to reconsider. State Medicaid costs will jump $76 billion, or nearly 3 percent, over the next decade if all 50 states decide to expand Medicaid eligibility in 2014 under the federal health law. But state spending on the program would still increase to the tune of $68 billion even …